


but i know, yes i know we'll be alright

by visiteroda



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: BUt they kind of share that really, But Not Much, Coming Out, Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sex, Kissing, Live Stream, Louis Tomlinson is Protective of Harry Styles, M/M, Minor Angst, No Smut, accidentally coming out, i messed around with the timelines a little bit ngl, i used to be gillandgilbert this is the same fic i just changed users, implied Bottom Harry Styles, implied Top Louis Tomlinson, it's not that angsty tbh, like it's a little, set around 2014/2015, zayn is still in one direction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27773461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/visiteroda/pseuds/visiteroda
Summary: “I made you tea, my love,” Harry called as he walked into the room, bare feet on cool, wooden floorboards.He could see the back of Louis’ head and shoulders over the top of the sofa. His hair was messy, and the dark green hoodie he was wearing looked slightly rumpled. Louis had stopped mid-sentence, shoulders tensing. Lou looked over his shoulder at Harry, eyes frightened and frantic.“Haz-”Harry caught sight of the phone in Louis’ hand, open, unmistakably, on the Instagram Live page.
Relationships: Harry Styles/Louis Tomlinson
Comments: 15
Kudos: 301





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. i've never written one direction fic before so if it sucks i'm sorry  
> 2\. no disrespect intended, the characters depicted in this fic are exactly that. characters.
> 
> title is from ready to run
> 
> edit 15/12/2020: i changed louis' mug from CUNT to COCK because he's gay love (but also i just think it's funnier to imagine the fans watching his live seeing how comfortably gay he is u know?)

Harry stumbled out of his and Louis’ bedroom just as the soft light of dawn had begun to fade into a golden early morning. His ( _Louis’_ ) boxers were slung low on his hips, the rest of his body bare. He wandered into the kitchen, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, to flick the kettle on for a cuppa. Louis’ voice was quietly audible from the living room, but Harry payed it no mind, it wasn’t unlike Louis to speak to himself.

As he waited for the water to boil, he leaned against the cool stone of their countertop, one of his fingers idly pressing into one of the mottled bruises on his neck. Louis hadn’t bothered to hold back from leaving love bites on his neck last night, knowing that the two of them were able to remain home for the next week. Unbothered, beautiful peace and quiet. No management, no hiding, nothing. Just each other. A soft grin graced Harry’s face as he thought about the week to come. He was sure they wouldn’t have left the bed at all today, but when he had woken Louis’ space beside him was already cooling from a lack of body heat. He had thought nothing of it, they’d have plenty of time to get reacquainted with their sheets in the coming week after all.

The kettle flicked itself off; Harry wasted no time filling two mugs — Louis’ favourite; a white one with a black handle and the letters ‘OCK’ printed on the side, and his own favourite; hand-thrown and a desaturated light blue with a chip in the handle — dumping tea bags into each one and a dash of milk into Louis’ before he poured the water. He picked up the two mugs and head out into the lounge.

“I made you tea, my love,” Harry called as he walked into the room, bare feet on cool, wooden floorboards.

He could see the back of Louis’ head and shoulders over the top of the sofa. His hair was messy, and the dark green hoodie he was wearing looked slightly rumpled. Louis had stopped mid-sentence, shoulders tensing. Lou looked over his shoulder at Harry, eyes frightened and frantic.

“Haz-”

Harry caught sight of the phone in Louis’ hand, open, unmistakably, on the Instagram Live page. Harry froze — standing in clear view of the live stream — almost naked in only his pants, covered from neck to thighs in red and purple love bites, Louis’ fingerprints bruised onto his hips, his long hair messy from sleep and sex, and holding two cups of tea.

“ _Fuck_.”

Louis snapped out of his daze, ending the live without even a goodbye. The damage was done.

They were going to be in so much trouble.

Harry moved slowly, walking around the couch to place the mugs on the coffee table before collapsing into the soft fabric of their grey sofa. He looked at Louis nervously. Louis sighed, lifting his arm to rest on the back of the couch. Harry moved quickly to cuddle into his side, burying his face into Louis’ chest. He screwed his eyes shut, focusing on keeping the tears at bay. Below him he felt Louis shaking, letting loose muffled noises that sounded like sobs. Harry looked up at him and saw that he wasn’t crying at all. He was shaking with barely suppressed laughter.

He caught Harry’s eye, and the dam broke.

His whole chest shook as he laughed, and laughed, and laughed. It was hysterical, and Harry didn’t think Louis had any control over it. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.

“M’Sorry, m’sorry. I don’t know what the fuck just happened.”

“What do we do now?” Harry murmured, voice quavering as he held back tears.

“I dunno, love. I really don’t know,” Louis replied, giggles still threatening to escape. He brought his hand down to stroke up and down Harry’s back soothingly. “I suppose all we can do is wait for the angry call from Modest.”

As if on cue, Louis’ phone started vibrating on the table. Louis and Harry stared at it, the vibrations getting angrier and angrier as it buzzed dangerously close to the edge.

Louis grabbed it, answering it with a voice going from slightly crazed mirth to trepidation in less than a second, before it could ring out.

Harry listened to one side of the conversation, watching as Louis’ face darkened until he was only replying to whoever was on the other line with single-syllable responses. He hung up in less than five minutes.

“We have a meeting in an hour.”

Harry nodded, eyes red-rimmed, a bit put out that their rest week was being cut short.

“Hey,” Louis said, tilting his head up with two fingers under his chin, “we’ll be okay. You and I are always going to be okay.”

Louis pressed a gentle kiss to Harry’s forehead before tapping his hip. Harry stood, pulling Louis up to follow him to the bedroom.

“Should probably give my mum a ring,” Harry mumbled, “you should, too.”

Louis nodded. He was already dressed, so he flopped onto the bed to watch Harry search for something to wear, phone pressed to his left ear.

Harry bit his lip, pulling on a pair of black skinny jeans. He watched Louis’ eyes trail up and down his chest hungrily, even while on the phone to his mum after a catastrophe. Harry grinned lightly, winking as they caught eyes.

He buttoned up a light blue shirt, leaving it mostly open, and slipped his rings on. He paused for a moment, before slipping his wedding ring onto his ring finger. There was no way they could go back into the closet after a fuck-up as monumental as this. He might as well go all in.

He looked at himself in the full-length mirror he had propped up next to their dresser, taking in the bruises on his neck and chest. The shirt, as unbuttoned as it was, covered a great deal of the small marks Louis had left littering his skin, but plenty were still visible. He had three on the right side of his neck, two on his left, and two visible on his collarbones.

He threw a praise up to the Heavens that he hadn’t begged Louis to choke him last night.

Louis wasn’t free of marks, either, but his were far easier to cover. His back was covered in bright red lines from Harry’s dull nails scratching their way down, he had a perfect ring of tooth marks where Harry had bitten down hard enough to leave a noticeable indent on his right shoulder. His chest, too, was littered with love bites, just like Harry’s. Louis just wasn’t inclined to wear shirts half-open, so he had gotten away with them.

Louis watched him carefully, listening to his mum speaking on the phone, and grabbed his own ring from the bedside table. He, too, slipped it onto his finger with a tender smile.

Harry smiled back at him, grabbing his phone and silently waving it while pointing at the door. Louis nodded in understanding.

Harry slipped into the hallway, leaning his head against the cool wall as he took a few deep breaths. Powering on his phone, he saw just how many notifications he had. Twelve missed calls — three from Gemma, two from Niall, two from his mum, two from Lottie, one from both Liam and Zayn. One from Simon. — 47 text messages, by and large from the group chat with the boys, a handful from Louis’ sisters, and one missed FaceTime, also from Gemma.

He called his sister first.

She picked up after one ring, cutting off his greeting with a shrill, “What. Did. You. _Do_?”

Harry choked out a laugh, “Hi Gems. It was an accident.”

“Harry,” She responded through a heavy sigh, _“you’re trending on Twitter_. Or- you were, before the _fucking website crashed.”_

“Lou was live on Instagram. I didn’t realise. Guess he thought I’d sleep a little longer than I did.”

Gemma was quiet on the other line, for a moment, “Please tell me you weren’t naked. I haven’t _seen_ what happened, I just know something did.”

“…”

“ _Harry_! You weren’t _naked_.”

“I was in my pants, and, uh, well. It’s clear what we had gotten up to last night.”

Gemma groaned, but amusement seeped through, “Only you could have luck so good, and so bad at the same time, H, only you.”

Harry pouted, but a small grin was creeping onto his face, “I’ve gotta call mum. We have a meeting with management in forty-five minutes to get to. Call you later?”

“Course. Love you. You’ll be okay.”

“Love you too, Gem.”

She hung up, the dial tone ringing softly in Harry’s ear. He slumped down the wall, sitting with his head between his knees for a few moments before he plucked up the courage to call his mum.

His phone dinged with a text message from Gemma.

 ** _Today at 11:02_** **, Gems:** WHEN U SAID U WERE IN UR PANTS I DIDN’T ALSO EXPECT U TO BE MAULED!! TELL LOUIS TO CALM HIS DICK!!!

He laughed lightly, sending back a careful selection of cheeky emojis. He called his mum, listening to it ring idly.

“Hi, baby,” his mum greeted, sounding chipper.

“Mum. Hi. Lou and I came out. It was an accident.”

“I heard. Gemma called. How’re you feeling, love?”

Harry thought for a minute, “I’m not sure. It’s a relief, but at the same time…”

“It’s scary.”

Harry hummed in agreement, “it’s like… on the one hand, we don’t have to hide anymore, and obviously that’s an amazing feeling, but on the other… it wasn’t _on our terms_. Not really. It was an accident, because I did something stupid. I didn’t _think_ , and now Lou has to deal with it too. It’s my fault we’re in trouble with Modest. I’m trying to look on the bright side but I’m just so scared.”

He breathed through his nose, counting beats to stop the dangerous burn behind his eyes from becoming overwhelming.

“H, you’re only twenty-one. It’s not unreasonable for you to be scared. You might be all grown up and all famous, but you’re still my baby and I love you, so much. Everything will work out. You have Louis right by your side, love. He doesn’t blame you for any of this.”

“Thanks mum. I love you.”

“Love you too, Harry. Good luck, love.”

Harry says goodbye quietly, hanging up the phone. He leans his head against the wall again, breathing out an, “okay.”

He stands, walking back into their bedroom, shutting the door with a gentle click. Louis is sitting on the bed, head in his hands.

“Y’Alright?” Harry asks, still standing in the doorway.

Louis nods, lifting his head to look at Harry. “C’mere.”

Harry walks over and stands between Louis’ legs, the front of his own legs pressed to the edge of the mattress, standing as close as they could without Louis standing. Louis leans his head onto Harry’s stomach, forehead pressed against the warm skin where his shirt lay unbuttoned. He presses sweet kisses to Harry’s inked skin, one on each wing of his butterfly.

“We have to leave soon,” Harry mumbles, eyes slipping closed as one of his hands tangles into Louis’ hair.

Louis hums against his skin, stretching upwards to kiss a trail up to Harry’s sternum. Harry takes a step back, Louis rising from the bed to follow. Louis tugs at Harry’s shirt collar, dragging him down to press their lips together in a searing kiss. They stumble backwards until Harry is pressed against the wall, Louis crowding their bodies together until they’re pressed front to front with no space between.

A moan slips out of Harry’s mouth that Louis swallows with practised ease. Their tongues slide together, familiar and perfect. They break apart after a few long, languid moments.

“I love you so much, Haz,” Louis mumbles into the juncture between Harry’s neck and shoulder. He licks over the faded indent his teeth had left last night. Harry moans loudly, unabashed.

“Love you too, Boo,” he said, head tipping back to grant Louis easier access to his neck.

Louis steps back, fully disconnecting them with a cheeky smile, “we have to get going.”

Harry glares at him, taking a moment to smooth his hair, “wanker.”

Louis winks, laughing as he throws their bedroom door open.

*

The car ride to the office building that their management team had called the meeting in was mostly quiet. Harry had Louis’ left hand in a death grip as he drove with his right. Louis looked over at him as he pulled up to a red light; he squeezed their palms together tightly in two rapid pulses. _It’s okay._

Walking into the office room was terrifying. A team of Modest representatives and Simon were sat at a round table silently, Zayn, Liam and Niall sat across from them. Harry and Louis sat in the two empty seats next to Niall. Harry’s grip on Louis’ hand never loosened. They all looked at each other for a long second.

“Harry. Louis. I’m sure you’re aware of why we’re here,” Simon began, finally. His face was a careful mask of calm indifference but — if you looked a little bit closer — there was an anger and disappointment simmering just beneath the surface.

Harry nodded, looking down at the table.

“Louis, what on _earth_ were you thinking? Going live without warning?”

Harry tried to interrupt, to defend Louis, but one withering look from Simon shut him up.

“And Harry, you were incredibly stupid, and have jeopardised your, and your bandmates, entire careers in one morning.”

“Hold on a minute, Simon,” Louis interrupted, eyes flashing, “this wasn’t Harry’s fault at _all_. Blame me, sure, figure out a ‘way to deal with me’ or some shit, but _don’t you dare blame this on Harry_. I should have told him before I went live, I should have been more careful. He was just being a good husband — because as much as you deny it, as much as you wish we weren’t, that’s what we are. We’re married to one another, we’re committed, and we’ve put up with a lot of bullshit over the years from you — he was just acting like he normally would on a rest week. This is on me, not Harry.”

“Lou,” Harry murmured, squeezing his hand, “it’s okay. I’m a big boy, I can deal with it.”

“It’s not about that, Haz,” Louis replied, voice softening, “It’s not about whether you can deal with it, it’s about whether you should have to.”

Simon cleared his throat, the calm mask gone, replaced with cool anger.

“What about Eleanor’s contract, Louis? Where do you propose we go from here? You didn’t think this through.”

“It was an _accident!_ You can’t _think through_ accidents,” Louis spat, venomously. Protective.

“It’s not like anyone’ll believe you if you put them back in the closet,” Zayn said.

“I can release an official statement. Nothing about the forced closeting, nothing defamatory. We can say it was all my idea, because I was scared. I’ll pay out Eleanor’s contract from my own pay check, I don’t care, but I’m not going back into the closet. It’s not the ideal way we could have come out, but it’s an opening.”

Simon and the rest of the management team were quiet, analysing the situation. Simon nodded, once.

“Fine. Send me your draft statement before tomorrow morning. You’ll release it tomorrow afternoon.”

Louis breathed a sigh of relief. Harry squeezed his hand again, fighting back tears.

“Thank you,” Harry said, voice wavering.

They all stood, Louis shaking Simon’s hand.

The five of them left the room, leaving the management team behind. As soon as the door closed, a harsh click ringing out in the otherwise quiet of the clinically white hallway, Niall pulled them all into a tight, bone-crushing group hug.

“I’m proud of you two, even if you didn’t mean to do it this way.”

Murmurs of agreement followed from the other two boys. Harry squeezed his eyes shut and hugged them back even tighter.

“Thanks lads,” Louis muttered, “now Haz and I should get home. We have an official statement to draft."

*

_To our lovely fans,_

_You may have seen something major happened yesterday morning. I had gone live on Instagram to chat with you all before taking a week break to rest and relax before I, and the rest of One Direction, embark on our next world tour. I never imagined what would come from something so minimal as a livestream chat to all of you._

_Simply put, Harry and I are in a relationship. As I’m sure many of you suspected, we’ve been together since late 2010 and married since 2013. Our whole relationship has been kept under wraps from the public, both in an effort to maintain some privacy and because we weren’t sure ourselves of where we stood on our relationship being public knowledge. The level of fame we have achieved is something we're both incredibly grateful for, but for something as personal as our relationship, we wanted to be certain first. We're certain now. Harry has been nothing but perfect to me in these five years we’ve been together. He is a wonderful, kind-hearted, beautiful person and I’m so incredibly lucky to know him._

_Being a part of One Direction has been an insane gift that I hadn’t even thought to dream about five years ago when I auditioned for the X Factor, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. Since those days, life has been a whirlwind of making music, touring, meeting new people, making lifelong friends and falling in love. Meeting Niall, Zayn and Liam was a twist of fate that landed me with the three best friends I could have asked for, and meeting Harry was like I had finally met my other half. My better half._

_I haven’t been open with you. I’m sure that you may be feeling hurt or betrayed by the fact that I kept this facet of my being quiet for so long. You may want to blame Harry, or our management, or even Eleanor Calder, but in truth, it was me who was afraid. I chose to portray myself as a straight man because I was afraid to be open publicly as a gay man. I’m not afraid anymore._

_Coming out the way Harry and I did was not planned, expected or, necessarily wanted at the time we did, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything. Of course, I would have preferred to leave a little bit of our personal life to the imagination, but it is what it is I suppose._

_Moving forward, we don’t have any plans to stop making music together. We’ll be the exact same band you already know, but this time we’ll be a bit more open, a bit more comfortable. I can now be proud to love the man I love._

_Thank you so much. Here’s to five good years, and here’s to many years more._

_\- Louis Tomlinson._

_What he said. #LarryIsReal_

_\- H. x_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't plan on writing more but uhh here u go it's very soft

**Louis Tomlinson UPDATES** _@LTfanupdates_

#NEW | Louis is live on Instagram!

 **haz <3 ** _@stxrlightlou_

he’s so baby!! he never goes live this is the best day of my life

 **cecily 28 ** _@zxyniall_

i feel like this is gonna be smth important do y’all feel the energy??? he looks so soft

 **phenomeniall** _@ellaAngel_

can yall hear clattering in the back of lou’s live ?? what if its harry? :)))

 **ladybug** _@softliams_ replying to: **phenomeniall** _@ellaAngel_

dare to dream omgg

 **fletcher x_x** _@spxdermxns_

holy shiiiit holy shiiittttt new 1d music soon??

 **charlie** _@itshxl__

louis live louis live louis live

 **cecily 28 ** _@zxyniall_

wish the other boys were w louis too i miss their faces :/

 **haz <3 ** _@stxrlightlou_

HOLY FUCK HARRY

 **pans** _@pans_y_

“i made u tea my love” SOFT

 **rose** _@lwtloveshes_

HARRY FUCKING STYLES????

 **elliot 28 ** _@cryinggggg_

LARRY OMG

 **vines (they/them)** _@bestbi_bby_

larry,,,, is real????? THIS is the real best song ever

 **LARRY IS REAL?** _@hello_lgbtq_

HE ACTS SO SWEET BUT THEN LOOKS LIKE HE GOT RAVAGED

 **lucille** _@xthepondsx_

IVE NEVER BEEN HAPPIER TO BE SCREEN RECORDING

 **isha** _@uupallnightt_

antis stay mad

 **lee** _@niallerxx_

IN THE WISE WORDS OF HS ITS NOT ABT WINNERS OR LOSERS BUT WE FUCKING WON

 **livvy** _@angellou_

this is the best day of my fucking life

 **bye** _@axy_court_

larry is real? one direction were never that good anyway

 **///** _@l8rl0ser_

knew there was a reason one direction sucks

 **mon cherie** _@liamxzaynx_

two gays in a boy band? revolutionary! we love to see it

 **my gf is a ziam stan :/** _@ziallxbaby_

louis really went to town on harry huh?

 **midnight memories supremacy** _@g0ttabey0u_

i’m in shock lmao #LarryIsReal

 **Louis Tomlinson UPDATES** _@LTfanupdates_

#NEW | Harry Styles seen in Louis’ Instagram Live! #LarryIsReal

 **Harry Styles UPDATES** _@HSfanupdates_

#NEW | Harry and Louis TOGETHER? #LarryIsReal

*

**_Twitter._ **

_Something is technically wrong!_

_Thanks for noticing_ — _we’re going to fix it up and have things back to normal soon._

*

 **THE SUN: Harry Styles appears, baring all, in live by Louis Tomlinson —** **Internet Crashes!**

**THE DAILY MAIL: ‘Larry Stylinson’ Confirmed? Boy banders reveal more than just relationship.**

**US WEEKLY: International stars Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson in a relationship?**

*

The interviewer was a lovely looking girl, with kind brown eyes and soft auburn hair. She looked at the five of them for a long moment after the cameras had started rolling before clapping once. ( _“Sync clap,” she explained, not that she needed to. They’d done hundreds of interviews by this point.)_

“Hello boys. You’ve all been busy, haven’t you? It’s my understanding that you’ve got a new album out soon, _FOUR_?”

“Yeah, that’s right,” Liam said, smiling politely, “we’ve been working hard.”

“It’s got some of my favourite songs we’ve ever written on it, so I, for one, am extremely excited for the release,” Niall added.

“Any hints on the release date?”

Liam shook his head, tapping the side of his nose cheekily. She moved on, asking whether they were allowed to reveal any song titles — they weren’t, but Zayn dropped a not-so-subtle hint after taking a look at Harry’s tense figure, just to buy them a little bit more time — and asking about plans for the next tour. She was a good interviewer, and genuinely seemed to care about the music more than anything else. Still, there was a major topic they had been skirting around. This was the first interview since Louis and Harry had come out, and it was bound to be asked about. Harry took a breath, preparing himself for the inevitable question. Good thing, too, because she turned her attention to them almost immediately after he exhaled.

Louis dropped a hand to his knee, an action that was undoubtedly going to be noticed by the fans. Harry tensed up again for a moment, before remembering that it wasn’t an issue anymore.

“Louis, Harry,” the interviewer began, though she seemed apologetic bringing it up, “you two have recently opened up about your relationship. What made you decide to do it now? Aside from ill-timed live streams, of course.”

Louis looked at Harry for a second, searching his eyes in silent question. Harry tilted his head, a fraction of a gesture. _“You talk,”_ it seemed to say, _“I’m not ready yet.”_

“Well, to be honest, we probably wouldn’t’ve, you know, come out. We always planned to, of course, but not for a little while longer. It never felt like the right time. At first, it was a new thing and it was fragile, we weren’t sure it would last. Wanted it to, obviously, but we couldn’t know for sure. After that, when we were settled and _sure_ it just felt easier to hide. We’d already been doing it, and we were comfortable. Ask anyone, we’re the most domestic, sickening couple. We’re _it_ for each other, I guess, so it wasn’t as bad. Obviously, I had decided to enter into a deal with Eleanor, that was important for me to uphold. Not going to lie, it was a point of tension with me and Harry for a while, but it was just something that came with the job. It let us keep our privacy, and we’re big on having our privacy.

“After the livestream debacle, it just seemed easier to come clean with it all. It’d be more trouble to deny and sweep under the rug than it was worth and after it all happened, I realised just how tired I was of keeping this secret.”

“We like to think our fanbase is a lovely, accepting community,” Harry interjected, smiling softly at Louis and absent-mindedly lifting his hand from where it still rested on Harry’s leg to play with his fingers. “It was less fear, in the end, that stopped us from coming out as it was complacency with where our life was at that point. It was easier to be quiet about it, but now I couldn’t think of anything I’d want less.”

The interviewer was nodding along, smiling lightly, “Well, I’m really happy for you two. I know that by being open about this aspect of your life you’re going to be helping and inspiring a lot of young LGBT people. I know that if I had role models like you two when I was younger, it would have been far less of a struggle for me to accept myself, so I’m here to thank you on behalf of every scared and closeted teenager.”

All five of them, not just Harry and Louis, smiled at her. Niall looked about three seconds away from crying.

“And on that sappy note,” the interviewer was saying, “I think that’s all we have time for. Thank you to One Direction for being lovely guests, they have three albums out now _Up All Night, Take Me Home_ and _Midnight Memories_ and a fourth, _FOUR_ , to be released…soon, hopefully!”

“Bye!” The five of them chorused as they had been instructed to, smiling for the cameras.

Louis looked at Harry with a fond smile. Harry smiled back, a dimpled, bright grin and leaned over to kiss him softly.

The cameras cut.

**Author's Note:**

> lmk what you thought xx


End file.
